In Early Decision, debut novelist Lacy Crawford draws on 15 years of experience traveling the world as a highly sought-after private college counselor to illuminate the madness of college admissions.

Working one-on-one with Tiger-mothered, burned-out kids, Anne “the application whisperer” can make Harvard a reality. Early Decision follows five students over one autumn as Anne helps them craft their college essays, cram for the SATs, and perfect the Common Application. It seems their entire future is on the line—and it is. Though not because of Princeton and Yale. It’s because the process, warped as it is by money, connections, competition, and parental mania, threatens to crush their independence just as adulthood begins.

Whether you want to get in or just get out, with wit and heart, Early Decision explodes the secrets of the college admissions race.

Publication Date: August 6From Amazon:When Kristin Stevens loses her job in California's higher-education system, she and her husband, Cal, relocate to Massachusetts. Kristin takes a position at a smaller, less prestigious university and promptly becomes entangled in its delicate, overheated politics. Cal, whose musical talent is nothing more than a consuming avocation, spends his days alone, fixing up their new home. And as they settle into their early fifties, the two seem to exist in separate spheres entirely. At the same time, their younger neighbor Matt Drinnan watches as his ex-wife takes up with another man in town, with only himself to blame. Each facing a different sense of isolation, he and Kristin gravitate toward each other, at first in hopes of a platonic confidant but then, inevitably, as something more. What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Publication Date: July 30From Amazon:When Georgia Qullian returns to her hometown of Miami, her toddler and husband in tow, she is hoping for a fresh start. They have left Illinois trailing scandal and disappointment in their wake, fallout from her husband’s severe sleep disorder. For months, their three-year-old son has refused to speak a word.On a whim, Georgia takes a job as an errand runner for a reclusive artist and is surprised at how her life changes dramatically. But soon the family’s challenges return, more complicated than before. Late that summer, as a hurricane bears down on South Florida, Georgia must face the fact that her decisions have put her only child in grave danger.What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Three women. One secret. And a letter that will change everything—forever.

Tess. Rachel. Cecilia. Three women living three very different lives. But when Cecilia opens up a Pandora’s box, their lives will intersect in ways none of them could foresee.

Cecilia is the woman who seems to have it all: a successful career, a gorgeous husband, and three wonderful daughters. One day she finds an old tattered letter in the attic that’s addressed to her, to be opened only in the event of her husband’s death. But he’s still very much alive. When Cecilia casually mentions it to him on the phone, he laughs it off, telling her to put the letter away. Yet when he flies home early from an overseas business trip, and then frantically searches for the letter, Cecilia realizes there’s something important in it, something she needs to know. Yet even Pandora herself could not prepare Cecilia for what the letter reveals.